Copenhagen was a breakdown, not pre-structured or undertaken in good faith."

Prof Jeffrey D Sachs

Quote of the Day

Empty promises of aid to poor countries that are not honoured have zero value."

Prof Jeffrey D Sachs

Quote of the Day

In our common efforts, we cannot start from zero."

HE Mr J R E Quesada

Quote of the Day

The role of civil society is to put the Junoon (passion) back into the battle against climate change."

Mr Carl Pope

Quote of the Day

The impacts of climate change have begun, and we have lost years and years of precious time due to irresponsible leaders."

Mr Bittu Sahgal

Quote of the Day

We, in the US, have no business to build coal-based power plants today."

Ms Anjali Jaiswal

Quote of the Day

We cannot continue with business as usual. We have a responsibility beyond our own timeline."

Prof Walter Erdelen

Quote of the Day

There is no need for despair - the message has gone to civil society on the need for action."

Mr Suman K Bery

Quote of the Day

We need books like 'Eco-footprint for Dummies' to teach us how to reduce our personal ecological footprints in our daily lives."

Mr Rick Mayo-Smith

Quote of the Day

We must practice what we preach."

Dr Ursula Schaefer-Preuss

Quote of the Day

We have to share the burden, otherwise we will share the consequences."

Mr John Kerry

Quote of the Day

We have not created the world, but we received it."

Rt Hon John Gummer

Quote of the Day

We are not taking about future but reality. We are already suffering, losing territory everyday and that our survival is threatened."

HE Ms M P E Lloyd

Quote of the Day

Copenhagen Accord was valuable but we must assist the multilateral process."

Mr Shyam Saran

Keynote Address

Prof Sachs reminded that time was running out, and the emissions were still accelerating. The problem was something to be addressed here and now, not over the next 20 years. Also, he pointed out that the race to develop green technology would not necessarily take care of the problem of emissions, as was being presumed. Citing the example of China, he said that though China was racing ahead in the area of greentech, it was still building huge coal-fired plants to fuel its burgeoning economy.

Prof Sachs said that we are neither on a sustainable, nor a realistic trajectory of development. He called for urgently adopting a four-pronged approach - need for adopting a concrete and serious formula; need to begin the real ‘life and death’ challenge of adaptation to climate change; need to bring technology to the forefront; and the need to proceed further without waiting for the US anymore.

He stated that we do not have the existing technology that could take us on the path of sustainable development, and we need to upscale the production of wind and solar technologies. In short, there was a need to bring greentech out from the research and pre-commercial stage to the commercial stage, for which there was need for RDDD (research, development, demonstration, diffusion).

The session was chaired by Mr Nitin Desai, Former Under Secretary
of the United Nations and Distinguished Fellow at TERI.

Highlights

Financing was urgently needed for adaptation, scaling up the resilience of poor countries, transforming core technologies, reducing the cost of green technology.

Speaker

"Copenhagen was a breakdown, not pre-structured or undertaken in good faith."

Prof Jeffrey D Sachs Director - The Earth Institute & Special Advisor to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, USA